94
and 1–3 females, and dependent young. Several groups may join
together in bands of up to 60 individuals. They circulate within a home
range, sleeping on steep cliffs or rocky outcrops, always within reach
of drinking water. Females probably give birth at any time of the year
to a single young after a 175-day gestation.
Distribution and Status This baboon is restricted to the Horn of
Africa, eastern Ethiopia, Eritrea, the Red Sea Hills of Sudan and the
mountain ranges and hills of western Saudi Arabia and Yemen. In
Saudi Arabia it occurs from about the vicinity of Medina south-
westwards to Jiddah and then throughout into Yemen, where it is
known as far eastwards as Wadi Idim in the Hadramaut.
Conservation Areas Raydah Escarpment NR (Saudi Arabia).
Similar Species Other primates that may be encountered in the
northern Sahel belt on the fringes of the Sahara include the Savannah
or Olive Baboon (Papio cynocephalus) – shown on page 93 – and the
Patas Monkey (Erythrocebus patas). Isolated Olive Baboon populations
apparently occur in the Aïr-Ténéré massif in northern Niger to the
south of the Algerian border and the Tibesti massif on the border
between Chad and Libya, as well as in the Ennedi ranges in north-
eastern Chad close to the Sudanese border. Patas Monkeys are large,
principally terrestrial primates that favour open savannahs and rocky
areas, in which (for monkeys) they occupy very large home ranges.
An apparently isolated population may have been recorded in north-
western Niger.